Many college students report participating in drinking related events which can lead to a variety of negative consequences including accidental death, injury, and physical and sexual assault. Drinking games and college football gamedays at large universities are potential situations where alcohol-related risks can occur. Additionally, endorsement of different drinking motives has been related to various rates of alcohol consumption and adverse events. This study examines the relationship between drinking motives and alcohol consumption among college students across the contexts of drinking game participation, tailgating prior to home football games, and drinking within the stadium during home football games.
The study’s sample consisted of 533 college students from a large public Southeastern university. Participants were asked to report alcohol consumption within the past 28 days, any drinking game participation in the last 30 days, any drinking while participating in home football game tailgates, and any alcohol consumption within the stadium during a home football game. The drinking motives questionnaire- revised (DMQ-R) was used to assess how often participants chose to drink alcohol for coping, enhancement, social, and conformity motives. Data was analyzed using hierarchical regressions to assess for relationships between drinking motives and number of drinks consumed in a variety of contexts.
Results of the data analysis showed that for drinking games and tailgating all four drinking motives (coping, enhancement, social, and conformity) were positively associated with number of drinks consumed. Drinking in the stadium was only positively correlated with conformity drinking motives. The hierarchical regressions indicated that coping and enhancement motives were positively correlated to number of drinks consumed while tailgating after controlling for number of tailgates participated in. Conformity motives were positively related to number of drinks consumed while playing drinking games and alcohol consumption in the stadium. Social motives were negatively associated with number of drinks consumed in the stadium.
Takeaway: Drinking motives may provide predictive value when assessing alcohol consumption during drinking games, tailgating, and drinking in the stadium among college students.